Ofuda no Kokoro
by Shujin1
Summary: Negi had made a vow and now a new student is going to test his resolve. How far would he go to protect class 3-A? Train? Tell them his secret? If asked to, would he die for them?
1. A Princess

This is for fun, nothing very serious but I want to write it anyway. This is a Mahou Sensei Negima fic based after the events of Library Island and the final exams. During the Eva arc, Negi made a vow to himself. Now, a certain transfer student will test his resolve. Even against magic, magic cannot solve everything.

Mahou Sensei Negima!

Ofuda no Kokoro

_Yurete iru omokage ni Bokura no negai Eien ni hateshinai...  
In the wavering facade, our wish is eternally endless..._

* * *

It was a cycle that Sen had gotten used to over the years. Whenever she ended up in here...he would always come to visit during the times he had free from the rest of the world.

Sometimes it was during lunch and she could smell what he was snacking on, usually that _horrible_ squid and udon dish. Sometimes it was way too early in the morning that he would stop by. She would be asleep but a sakura blossom would be quietly blooming on the pillow beside her head for her when she awoke. Sometimes it was in the evening and it was never just him alone, it was the best time for family members and friends to tag along. Sometimes it was in the dead of night and he wouldn't enter but instead stand by the door. Just watching her, she supposed. Silent. Sad. The timing was erratic, there was no pattern.

But he always came.

"Yet another scar to add to your collections," a weary male voice said in poor humor, coming from somewhere near the foot of her bed.

She only blinked, slowly, languidly as she began her ceiling tile count again.

"Is it difficult for you, hmm?" He spoke again and there was the familiar rustling of silk on a coarser material. Sen hated the chair he was sitting on because it was far too plain. A stubby backing with too long spindly legs like a spider, frozen stiff in place. It was covered in this dull, blank, moss green material and she knew it to be uncomfortable. It was as dead as the rest of the room.

Bad choice of words.

She did not give any indication that she didn't like it though. It fell under the category of "her personal feelings" so she never would tell.

It was irrational anyway and better off left unsaid. Like how much she hated this bed she was laying in, because she wasn't walking around. Irrational. How much she hated the blank white of this room, the sterile smell, the bandages, everything. Unreasonable. How much she wanted those curtains pulled back, just for a moment, so she could check to see if the sun was still there. Irresponsible. Reckless. Illogical.

So she sighed and said, "Not difficult at all, Father," instead of what she wanted to say. There was more rustling and she knew he was nodding in that overly solemn way. Like he understood. Maybe he did, she never thought about that much.

"I fear for you," he began to say. "A few more years, or a little longer I thought but we have now been backed into a corner." He paused in that expectant way but Sen did not feel the need to interrupt. "You shall go into hiding."

Her eyes widened and she lost count again. Hiding. "And never see the sun again?" she asked softly. There was a guilty silence. "To never have anyone speak to me like a human being? Father…" she trailed off but then regained her confidence. This needed to be said. "It would be better to kill me."

"What would you have us do?" he asked calmly.

"Send me away." She answered immediately. "Disown me quietly, let me disappear, divert their attention elsewhere but don't-" the tears were beginning to sting but they wouldn't fall. "Don't lock me in a cage like an animal."

"And where could you go?" For a second, Sen was angry with him. Why was he not getting restless? Irritated, annoyed or even exasperated? "They would hunt you down and-"

The room was suddenly quiet and she lifted her head. Her father was staring back at her, his eyes suspiciously bright and the rare quirky smile on his lips. She struggled to keep her left eyebrow down but it rebelliously rose on its own. She managed to control her voice better.

"You've thought of something."

He said only two words. The first one was her name and the other was "Magi."

* * *

_In the Dean's office..._

Takahata T. Takamichi really didn't have a good feeling about this meeting. It was unusual, even by his own decidedly abnormal standards. It was one thing to call a teacher or two to the Dean's office. It was another to have over ten of the staff crowded around the desk. All of them were bound by the Statute of Secrecy so whatever it was, it was going to be big. Big enough to risk magic, to risk being turned into animals. Konoe Konoemon was far from reckless but damn, that cold feeling in his gut wasn't going away.

Fighting off the urge to light up a cigarette, he cast his gaze around the room until it finally rested on the shortest and youngest of the Mahora Academy's teachers. Those small bifocal glasses and the odd hair, reddish brown on top and darker on the bottom with a tiny ponytail were hard to miss. He allowed himself a slight smirk. Negi-kun was a permanent teacher now, he must have been relieved.

What was he thinking? Of course the kid was relieved. Being just that one step closer to his dream would do that.

Konoemon-san cleared his throat and all of them snapped to attention. "It is a little of a late notice, ho hm, but Mahora will be gaining two transfer students as of tomorrow."

Takamichi raised an eyebrow and spotted, with no small amount of alarm, that there were two extras lingering in the shadows of the Dean's office. It was rather late at night, very late and it was just making him more paranoid. Transfer students sounded innocent enough but obviously...

Seruhiko stepped forward. "Ano, while it may be unusual why are we all being informed of this? At this hour?"

The old man, respected and brilliant in his own way of course but still old, fixed the young teacher with a grave stare. "Because with this transfer, hm, comes the possibility of funerals."

He really wanted that smoke now.

"Wha-what kind of transfer is it!?" Someone yelled from somewhere. He was too busy watching Negi-kun tense up to really know who. "Why is it being allowed, we have students to watch over!"

"The request of Emperor Akihito is not something to be refused so callously!" The Dean bellowed, driving the point home with his sudden lack of volume control.

Takamichi stuck his hands into his pockets on reflex; this was more than just big. A security heads up, this was not. Funerals, late transfer notice, their special guests and of course…

"Negi-sensei," Konoemon-san sighed. Trembling, the boy stepped forward and Takamichi felt a pang. He knew it.

"Y-yes?"

"They will be in 3-A." The old man raised his eyes to their guests who then stepped out into the light. It was who Takamichi thought it would be: Sakurazaki Setsuna, Shinmeiryu student and Tatsumiya Mana, gunslinger. "Be ever careful." He had to wonder, both had their own primary duties, what role would they play? Bodyguard? And...assassin?

The stereo "Yes sir!" wasn't making anyone feel any better. Negi-kun looked shocked and a little betrayed at the appearance of his students. Takamichi sympathized, it was not the best way to reveal their extra-curricular activities to him. But what can you do? This was obviously a matter of neccessity.

Konoemon-san turned in his chair slightly and that was a dismissal from the troubled Dean. Before leaving, Takamichi had to check up on something.

"Negi-kun." He thought about taking his hands out of his pockets but didn't actually do it. Just like it was with him and quitting smoking, never would manage to do it.

"Takamichi…" the boy said sadly. "You knew?"

It took him about half a second to figure out what the topic was now and another second to figure out what to say. "Yes, why else were they allowed to carry weapons in school?" He took the sting out of it with a sincere smile. The smile came easily, when he pouted, Negi looked far too much like his father, Nagi. "Not everyone is as helpless as they appear."

Immediately, Negi-kun's face grew thoughtful and Takamichi was sure that he was thinking of a certain girl and how different she was during the full moon.

"That is quite a lot to think about." He blinked at the boy. Now what was he thinking? But after a moment, he just resumed smiling.

"You should get going before Asuna-kun begins to worry, ne?" After that, he had to sigh. His panic, those stuttering exclamations, the frantically rehearsing apologies as he ran out the door; that was all Negi.

He turned his head and caught the Dean's eye. A solemn nod exchanged and Takamichi walked out at a fast clip, already pulling his pack of cigarettes out of his pocket.

He really needed that smoke.

* * *

_On the way to..._

Negi Springfield, mage in training, did not sleep well that night.

While some people might find the lack of sleep annoying or even unforgiveable, Negi saw it as his chance to do things right for once. He was strangely determined like that and was wide awake, dressed, prepared and nearly throwing up with nervousness when Sakurazaki-san came to get him the next morning.

Because while Yukihiro-san being in his class was one thing, he had finally realized last night that he was going to have royalty in his class.

Teaching them English.

And he had just managed to keep his job too.

Sakurazaki-san offered no words of comfort but it would have been a bit awkward if she had. They didn't really talk much. No, this was his duty as a teacher to try his best and stop being so afraid! There were worse things than making a bad first impression! He set his jaw but by the time the Dean's door finished opening (was it just him, or was it taking far longer than normal?), he was ready to wet himself.

Sakurazaki stepped in front of him. "Springfield, Negi!" she announced before dropping to the floor on one knee. Negi was sweating bullets.

"Um, er, ano…" he could have slapped himself for momentarily slipping back into English habits. "Y-yoru…" he trailed off and stared, halting mid bow.

"Negi." One of the students said, without any suffixes and part of him wondered whether to be offended or not. "Shouda Sen, I am honored to meet you."

Sen was a girl of average height (taller than Sakurazaki-san he thought with some guilt) with her black hair in a Western French braid and off center parted bangs. Hanging from a lock of hair by her right ear was a metal tassel made of...yen coins? Wearing the red Mahora Academy girl's uniform, she looked like just another one of his students and yet not. She had said that she was honored but the way she was looking at him made him feel very small in a way that had nothing to do with his age.

There was also the matter of the second student being male, though. Darker than the girl and his one visible eye was a bizarre shade of blue. He looked perfectly Japanese, had it not been for that eye color. And, oh yeah…

And very obviously carrying a sword.

The child teacher gave the old man behind that desk a bewildered look.

Konoemon-san coughed. "Higashikuni Takeru is required to stay close to Sen-dono, a matter of protection, you see." For some reason, Sakurazaki tensed and Negi gave her an uncomfortable glance. Why was she still on the floor? Was he missing something? Had he _already_ messed up?

"O-of course," he stuttered out that he understood and finished his bow. "I hope we'll have an exciting school year!"

Shouda-san shook her head minutely and her hand twitched towards her right arm. "I hope not."

He tried to keep his smile on his lips...

He really did...

* * *

_In the hallways..._

Shouda Sen, in the first couple of minutes, had been everything Sakurazaki Setsuna thought she would be. And then some. Her posture was rigid and perfect, head held high and even though she didn't have a traditional hair style, the imperiousness of her gaze more than made up for it.

At the very least, she had been expecting a mask. Someone who felt pressured into acting a certain way around others but it looked like class 3-A had gotten the real deal. She was the exact opposite of Ojousama. Konoe Konoka was the type of girl who lit up the room when she walked in, almost always with a smile on her face. She always meant the best for everyone, even when they didn't want it. She truly deserved respect in Setsuna's mind.

Sen-dono, on the other hand, commanded or even demanded respect and it was rubbing her the wrong way. Or maybe it wasn't even her, but rather her protector. Perhaps it actually was what had been said about him that was bothering Shinmeiryu student. He was required to stay close…if the Imperial family would put a male in that position for protection what did that say about Setsuna herself? One who kept her vigilance from a distance?

No!

She couldn't start second guessing herself. That would help nothing. She had...she had made her choice, she was too inexperienced to protect Ojousama well while letting down her emotional barriers. She'd hurt both of them less if she just stayed in the shadows.

Setsuna turned her head from her thoughts and almost scowled. She was walking on the left side and a little behind Sen-dono. The girl had an easy walk that sharply contrasted both of her protectors' tense strides. She had dark brown eyes like Ojousama but these were...cold.

Sen-dono glanced at her and Setsuna looked away quickly. There was an amused hum from the princess and the once easy grip on her sword, Yuunagi, turned into a white-knuckled one.

Out of respect for both the Emperor and Konoemon-sama, she would watch over the girl. But Ojousama would always be her top priority.

Always.

* * *

_In the classroom..._

An irritated Evangeline A. K. McDowell felt the arrival of Negi-bozu long before he reached the classroom door and she was also able to feel who was with him.

Perks of being a Maga Nosferatu, she supposed, even when this damned school and its thrice damned barrier were doing their best to take it all away. Negi-bozu had power, but lacked control. He was easy to sense, like a bonfire at midnight. Sakurazaki, self explanatory. Now the two others...

The door opened and Eva watched the gaki trek across the room to the teacher's desk. The blonde ditz (pick one, honestly) called out the morning greeting and, as she had been doing for the past fifteen years, she completely ignored it. There were more interesting things than stand, bow, sit, anyway.

Sakurazaki made her appearance, with a laughably serious face on, to announce, "Natsuko Sen of Satsuma, third granddaughter of Emperor Akihito!"

Eva's eyebrows threatened to crawl up her forehead, across her scalp and back down to the nape of her neck as she watched the girl shallowly bow before the class. For once, 3-A was silent as the princess said,

"It is a pleasure." The girl jerked her head and Eva's eyebrows refused to go any further as a boy, dark skinned and one eye completely covered by his hair stepped into the classroom. Yes, this is what she had felt. Weak, she couldn't be sure if it was her own stifled senses or it was just good at hiding but they were the source.

Both had twisted magical signatures.

Eva began to smirk as "Higashikuni Takeru" was introduced by Shouda. She could already tell, this was going to be an interesting year. Perhaps at the next full moon she just might-

"Master?"

"Negi-bozu," Eva drawled lazily. "Might have his hands far too full, Chachamaru." For a moment, she wondered where they would sit but when Negi, in his _infinite_ wisdom nodded towards the back of the class, she knew. Sen, was it? She seemed to be nothing more than an ordinary girl from the outside. "You are not as you seem," she teased the Japanese princess who paused after sitting, slowly looked around the room and then focused on her.

"Is anyone?"

The small vampiress quickly wiped the stunned expression off her face and turned back to the lesson. "Hmph."

"A-ah, Shouda-san," Negi-bozu stammered out and Eva watched half the class tense at the inappropiate address. "Would you mind reading out the passage on the board?"

The girl stood up and spoke in clear, slightly accented English, _"The wind blows through the branches of my Sakura trees, setting loose the petals and covering the grass in a soft blanket of pink."_ For a moment, she looked as if she wanted to say something else but held her tongue.

Not that Eva was interested in what she was about to say, of course, even if it would humiliate Negi-bozu.

"Excellent, thank you!" Negi-bozu glanced about. "Asuna-san?"

Cue growl of inarticulate rage as Evangeline smirked. "Leave the idiot to her own devices, I'll read." Before either Negi or Chachamaru could question her sudden interest in the class, she stood up and recited the next verse out loud. Flawlessly, of course. A little schoolwork to see that suddenly apprehensive and almost terrified look on that boy's face? Completely worth it.

* * *

_Outside..._

"Shouda-san!" he was calling out to her back. "Shouda-san!" Was she...she was! His heart seemed to leap in his throat as the girl slowly turned around and her ever present guardian halted. He put a little more speed, but not too much! And came to a panting stop in front of her.

He was now her homeroom teacher and he was going to make sure she knew what that meant!

"Yeeees?" the girl drew out dully.

"I'll do my best," he told her passionately, still half-breathless. "If you have any troubles, any at all, I'll be glad to help out. I must watch over all of my students!"

For a moment, she said nothing and just stared at him until he began to fidget. Was that too forward? Did she not know that the teachers were to protect her? What if-what if she didn't know about magic at all! How was he supposed to...he'll be turned into an ermine! How would he explain that to Nekane!? His mind started to run away with him until she spoke.

"Your best?" she mused softly and then turned away. "It would be better, if you didn't try at all."

Unsure of what to do or say to that, he just watched them leave. But wasn't he supposed to...

"Shouda-san..."

_What...did she mean...?_

* * *

Notes of dubious importance:

Title means : Heart of the Seal.

Sen can also mean 'Thousand.'

Negi learned Japanese in a manner of weeks but I doubt that's enough time to get all of the cultural nuances down. Konoka is from a noble family but no one but Setsuna and Kaede would address her with an honorific such as –dono or –sama. Now with Sen as one of his students, I think he would fall back on the tried-and-true –san suffix. In Japan, addressing someone without a suffix like Sen did denotes extreme disrespect since she has not received his permission to address him so.

Anyway, the idea popped into my head and wouldn't leave. I didn't like the flow of the Takamichi section but couldn't fix it enough to be satisified. Hopefully, this chapter isn't horrible.


	2. In Her Tower

This is for fun, nothing very serious but I want to write it anyway. This is a Mahou Sensei Negima fic based after the events of Library Island and the final exams. During the Eva arc, Negi made a vow to himself. Now, a certain transfer student will test his resolve. Even against magic, magic cannot solve everything.

Mahou Sensei Negima!

Ofuda no Kokoro

_Itsu shika ikiru tame ni Okizari ni shita Shiawase_  
_To live unnoticed, I deserted a happiness_

* * *

It was early morning in Mahora, the sun's rays were right at the exact angle needed to cut through his windows and splash an array of rainbows onto his paperwork. Konoe Konoemon wanted to smile at the sight, like he did every morning, but there was something off about the vision. He used to feel the life in this building, even at this hour. He used to be able to imagine the smiling faces that would fill the courtyard in about two hours time. The excited hum of magic in the air felt drained. Quieter than usual. Or perhaps, he was just feeling his age...

The colours seemed muted, splayed out on his papers. Pastel, faded and dappled like the reflection on a pond after the pebble had been thrown in.

How odd...

There was the familiar sound of the door opening and he gave the two tea cups (a generic strawberry brand, a pity) a cursory glance to make sure they hadn't up and walked away in the past five minutes. Stranger things have happened.

"I do believe you are right on time, Sen-dono," he commented warmly and watched the girl silently take a seat across the desk. Rigid posture, the type he had been trying to cultivate in his granddaughter to no avail. "I hope, hm, your trip went well?"

"There were no complications," she answered in a clipped and distant tone of voice. From what he had observed of the girl yesterday, this was the usual fare but honestly, "complication" was not the word he would use for an assassination attempt. He squashed the urge to reach out to her, as he might with any other student, by reaching for his tea.

"That's reassuring. Being hindered by a well kept secret or two means they are not omniscient." He took a soothing sip of his drink, delightfully warm still. "It also shortens our list of possible traitors."

"They will find me." Just four words, spoken like they held the weight of the entire world behind them. He could feel that weight slowly crushing him into his chair. He had mentioned funerals to his staff, a word chosen specifically to get _them _to pay more attention, but now he couldn't get it out of his mind. He didn't want to live through another Mahora tragedy.

He briefly lowered his tea cup. "You sound so sure..." he lightly pressed and watched Sen-dono finally pick up her cup. He waited through at least six sips until he realized that she had nothing more to say. He cleared his throat. "And Takeru-kun?"

"I told it to stay at the apartment." Immediately after, her eyes widened slightly. Her grip tightened on the porcelain tea cup but she didn't correct herself. Konoemon felt like he had been sucker punched in the gut. It? _It?_

"Him," he said slowly. Her hand moved up in a gesture he had seen Konoka do once or twice to shove an unruly lock of hair behind her ear. On Sen, though, all it accomplished was brushing up against the metal tassel, causing the coins to clink softly.

"Him," she repeated.

"You show great faith in our ability to protect you." The silence that followed, the Dean most definitely thought uncomfortable. After about a minute, he moved onto to safer subjects. "I don't suppose you have an opinion of 3-A, do you?" he asked with forced cheer, draining his cup.

"Energetic," was the first thing she said and he had to chuckle. That was very true.

"I hope they haven't already interrogated you," he lightly, very lightly teased. There was just no telling how she would take good natured ribbing so he was more than prepared to back pedal if the answer was 'not well.'

"I am not required to attend classes with mundane teachers so I left." He frowned mightily for two reasons: For starters, she had not seemed to notice that he had been attempting to tease, not a single flicker of recognition and the second...skipping classes? Oh no no no no! That would not do at all! He had to be diplomatic about it and yet stern...

"I will stay the whole day if you wish." Ah, she had beaten him to it.

"Please." Konoemon glanced down at his desk and noticed with a small amount of surprise that the rainbows had faded away entirely. Time flies when you are busy stepping on eggshells. "Before you leave, perhaps you can elaborate on your...scars?" It had been the largest section of the letter his old aquaintance, Emperor Akihito, had sent him. He had the basics but the only one who could tell him the effects of the curse was the one it affected.

Sen-dono stood up and a for a moment, he worried if it was an extremely touchy subject but then she began to unbutton her blouse and he worried for entirely different reasons.

"W-wait, Sen-dono, that is not at all necessary-" she slipped her right arm out of the sleeve. "..._Kami-sama._" It was ugly. The scar was placed right above the hollow of her shoulder and was vaguely shaped like a starburst. It was a knotted mass of purplish black flesh that almost seemed to pulse under the sunlight, darker than usual veins leading away from the scar were showing up rather clearly through the skin and-

My word...it _was _pulsing.

"It was a spear of some sort," she explained in a dead tone. "It took months to close and it feels...odd. It is like-" for the first time since she arrived in his office, her voice faltered, taking on a faint hysterical edge as she spoke faster. "It is like something is _in _it, sometimes it numbs my arm, on full moons it _hurts_, Father didn't know what to do..."

Konoemon opened his mouth but then the door opened and he wanted to crawl away and die.

"Ah, Dean-san, I'm here-" Sen-dono, bless her heart, just looked over her shoulder at the shocked stiff form of her homeroom teacher. No embarrassment on her cheeks, no guilty looks and no apologies. As Konoemon pondered the usefulness of banging his head on his desk, she rebuttoned her shirt. The Dean thought about saying something but quitting while he was ahead seemed like a better idea so he just waited until the controversial student left his office.

He obviously couldn't pretend it never happened so he mimed sipping from his tea cup.

"Ah, Negi-kun, right on time. Did you happen to see a large scar on her back?"

* * *

_In the classroom..._

He had tried to smile exactly 37 times during the class period and each attempt had failed miserably. He knew that his students could tell something was wrong, if their frowns were any indication, but what could he do? It wouldn't be proper to simply stop the lesson just to vent! While he knew Asuna-san probably wouldn't mind, he couldn't burden them with his problems. Not this one because, well...

It wasn't his alone.

He didn't mean for his eyes to stray to the back left corner of the classroom, but like the past 37 times, they did anyway. Shouda-san would be sitting there next to Evangeline, quiet, more than slightly rigid with an odd frown on her face. Higashikuni-san would be standing behind her, still forsaking the desk. Every once in a while, the girl would realize that he was staring and raise an eyebrow. At that point, he would turn back to the board, blushing and laughing nervously until his thoughts caught up to him again.

And then he'd sigh. The lesson would truck along with no interruptions until he found himself staring again.

Curses.

They were not spells, but rituals. Rare, as they had the nasty habit of back firing and highly illegal. Just being caught with notes on how to make one was a crime punishable by magic binding and ermining. Horrible things, the only thing that differed from curse to curse was the effects. Every single one of them killed eventually.

He had heard about curses, no graduate of the Magic Academy didn't but he never thought (not ever in his wildest dreams!) that he'd come across one.

Come across o- what was he thinking? She was a terribly unfortunate person, not some, some, _some test subject!_

The bell rang loudly and he gave a sigh of relief. "Good work everyone, make sure to turn in your passages tomorrow, don't forget!"

As he gathered his things, he saw the eyes of nearly every girl in the room swivel towards the back of the classroom. Yesterday, Shouda-san had left right after he did but it looked like she was staying this time. As he closed the door, he heard the screeching of several dozen chairs being moved or pushed aside and he smiled.

It was like a hazing process, those questions. Despite being blown off rather thoroughly yesterday, they didn't let it deter them at all.

3-A was truly remarkable.

Negi started down the hallway and spotted Takamichi coming up from his classes, looking as though he was just taking a stroll through the park rather than a school hallway. "Takamichi!"

"Oi, Negi-kun, everything go alright?"

The boy teacher was almost jealous of the older man's easy going smile and relaxed posture. Why couldn't he ever be so sure of himself? "Yes, my class is never really a bother..."

"Have you talked to them yet?"

"N-no..." he couldn't help fidgeting. Sakurazaki-san and Tatsumiya-san knew about magic, they should be a big help in keeping an eye on the cursed princess but...they were his students! No matter what anyone said, the very thought of admitting that he was a mage to people who would be sitting in those chairs, behind those desks, six days of the week was, well, frightening! He'd immediately start rationalising about not introducing them to the dangers of the magic world...only to remember several seconds later that they already knew.

He didn't know how to deal with it, to be honest.

A heavy hand fell on his shoulder, warm and comforting. "Take your time, Negi-kun," Asuna's crush stated with a lazy smile. "Take your time."

* * *

_In the classroom..._

It was like a flock of vultures descending on road kill. Morbid metaphor...

Her classmates were all talking fast, trying to get in as many words as possible before _Your Imperial Highness_ shifted her attention. Considering the girl changed targets every half a second, that was pretty fast. To her pleasant surprise, there was a faint blush on the princess' cheeks that was only getting redder with each question she kind of, sort of, answered.

"Fourteen years o-, ah no? I am afraid I don't-, I have not seen much of the palace actually...what does that word mean? No, he is not, a bodyguard of sorts, no, no! He is not allowed to speak- who do you think you are- I do too have that right!" And then, as an after thought, "I'm engaged."

Whoo boy, she shouldn't have said that...

The questions were coming even faster now to the point where, wait, were they even speaking Japanese!? This was getting them no where, a pity. A Paparazzi's work is never done! She could just see it now: An exclusive interview with the elusive Third Granddaughter, she wasn't even fifteen yet and sitting right there was the biggest scoop ever! So close and yet...

There was a mass of bodies in the way.

"Iincho!" she nudged one of the few girl's who were still in their original seats. "This isn't going to make a good first impression, is it?" she suggested slyly, resisting the urge to start snapping pictures. With Saotome's head in the way, they would be worthless.

The class representative nodded distractedly, stealing glances at the closed classroom door. "Asakura, you wouldn't happen to know of that which burdens Negi-sensei's heart, do you?"

She barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes. "You'll be the first to know _when _I find out. Now get over there and be our class rep!" As the blonde began to make good use of her lung capacity and vocal cords, Kazumi felt a faint shiver go through her, starting from her toes, all the way up her spine to form a headache just behind her eyes. "O-ow..."

"A princess? Really?" The voice was unfamiliarly familiar and she found herself answering.

"Yeah, we have the best luck, don't w-" There was no one there. Hesitating, Kazumi looked over at the princess and saw, hovering over the shoulder, was a slightly distorted image. Sayo-chan. But if she was over there...then who was...Freeze frame. She was fourteen. And fourteen means old enough to get her first big debut as a journalist, NOT old enough to go crazy. She was...she was thinking about it too much!

"Sen-dono!" she yelled out impulsively with a wave. "Would you mind answering questions in a more private setting?" There was a thousand words in the small relived smile she got. Eyes cast demurely downwards, blush slowly receding, she was-

Oooooh, yeah! One more step towards greatness!

Watch out, Japan! Incoming, Asakura Kazumi!

"Be sure to read it in the paper!"

* * *

_Lunch, World Tree Plaza..._

She was...uncomfortable and if she was honest with herself, she was feeling just a tad claustrophobic.

The plaza at the base of the World Tree was large and beautifully decorated with shrubs and large flowering plants, the majestic trademark of Mahora seemed to be reaching for the sky behind them and there wasn't many people around. This classmate of hers, seat number 3, had said the spot was perfect. And it was.

Perfectly open.

"You don't mind, right?"

Sen's head snapped back to the red head who was now holding up her camera. Hesitantly, after sweeping her gaze across the rooftops, searching for those moving shadows her mind kept insisting was there, she nodded. As the girl took pictures, Sen was feeling something similar to nostalgia but closer to regret.

She had her picture taken before, hadn't she? A...a while ago...with her father during the brief, mostly private visit to Yokohama. And with her grandfather, she must have because there was a well worn photo of her sitting on the Emperor's lap in her room. The cameras had been different. Large. Clunky looking with a telescope attached to the front. A brillant flash that left her seeing spots for several minutes afterwards. Nothing at all like the compact thing that Asakura was using. The middle schooler was handling the camera with a well practised flair, it must belong to her, that meant it wasn't expensive, commonplace?

Like the cellphone in her bag she had no idea how to use. How much had she been missing?

"Ok, for the record let's have our names..." the girl flicked a switch on this small, rectangular black box. "This Asakura Kazumi of the Mahora Paparazzi with..." the box was held out to her.

"Natsuko Sen of Satsuma, Third Imperial Granddaughter?" That was what she was supposed to do, wasn't it?

"I'm just going to ask some basic questions first: What's your birthdate?"

"December 3rd, 1989."

"So fourteen then..." The red head made some marks on the note pad she had brought with her. "What would you consider your hometown?"

Sen hesitated slightly, most of the time, she didn't even know where she was. "Kyoto."

"Do you have any hobbies, favorite movies, things like that?"

"No."

"Why'd you agree to this interview?" This was the end of the basic questions it seemed. She glanced out the corner of her eye to where Takeru was standing guard, as he should be. He wasn't too tense but he kept shifting his weight from foot to foot.

"I do not like being hounded for information."

Asakura, to her credit, paused for less than half a second. "You've been out of the spotlight for quite a while, more so than any other of the Imperial family. Any reason why that is or are you just shy?"

The correct answer would be: Someone is trying to kill me but she didn't need to look at Takeru's sudden grimace to know she couldn't say that. Not to a classmate of all people. "I'm still young and Father is over protective of me," was what came out instead. Asakura marked that down.

"You mentioned in class that pretty boy over there isn't allowed to speak, why is that?"

"To prevent slips of the tongue. His position is one that I am vulnerable to. As someone charged with my safety, it would be better if he could not indirectly compromise it." Easy lie.

"So..." At this point, seat number 3's grin became absolutely predatory. "Engaged?"

Sen blinked. She had expected the question but not the interest in it. "Takatsukasa Masayuki, 32, a friend of my Father," she listed absently from what she could recall of his profile. "He is a surgeon for the Maizuru Hospital in Kyoto."

"He's 18 years older than you," Asakura observed with a mystified look on her face. "You're ok with marrying someone like that?"

That question took a minute or so to answer. Did she mind? Well, not really, she could do worse and he seemed nice enough. Father had a hand in choosing him so there was little reason to refuse: a decent mundane occupation, a capable mage, she could stand to look at his face but...

Marry? She never really thought about it and she knew why.

"I will be dead by then."

Asakura opened her mouth and the school bell rung. Did she forget that it was being recorded? Did she forget that she was telling someone who shouldn't, _couldn't _get involved? Did she forget that it would be published? Did she care? Or is that what she wanted?

An illogical train of thought.

Best forgotten.

* * *

_He was a good boy. Most of the time._

It was somewhere around midnight, the third day was just around the corner. It was a bit humid outside, those clouds looked like they were just waiting to dump rain and the princess had a fever of 107 degrees fahrenheit and it was climbing.

She was sweating because of it, soaking her night clothes right through, not that he was looking...tossing and turning on the lone bed in the throes of some nightmare. She was mumbling in her sleep and if he bothered to listen he might be able to figure out her dream. If he bothered. He probably should be bothering to call Konoemon-sama about this, if the old man hadn't asked after her yet then he didn't know, but he didn't want to.

She lived through it before. She could stand to suffer a little, it'd be over by the time the sun came up anyway so it wasn't like he was abandoning his duty. She might be angry and she might not be, he wasn't going to blow something worrying over _your highness. _They were reaching the end of the grace period, it never lasted long and then he'd see-

And then they'd see how much good Mahora's barrier would do anyone.

_"M-Mother, no!"_

From the sounds, Sen was now awake and crying, screaming actually, into her pillow, but her guardian of nine years didn't move. Didn't even blink. There was much he could have done for her, for them both but...

But Takeru chose to stare out the window until she fell back asleep.

Until the sun came up.

* * *

I'm trying to tweak the narrative in the perspectives a bit to reflect the person they are narrating for but I'm probably failing at it...


	3. With A Dragon

This is for fun, nothing very serious but I want to write it anyway. This is a Mahou Sensei Negima fic based after the events of Library Island and the final exams. During the Eva arc, Negi made a vow to himself. Now, a certain transfer student will test his resolve. Even against magic, magic cannot solve everything.

Mahou Sensei Negima!

Ofuda no Kokoro

_Itsuwaru koto de Sugatte odotteta Tada no maboroshi ni  
That happiness was relying on pretense and dancing to what was merely an illusion_

* * *

There was nothing quite like a stiff neck in the morning.

Not only was his neck somewhere in the realm between pain and numbness but the rest of his body seemed to ache in sympathy from the top of his head to the tips of his toes. Joints were stiff, fingers cracked obscenely loud, eyes gummed shut and drool on his cheek...ugh, it was horrible. Negi Springfield, middle school teacher, age 10, was still not sure when and how he fell asleep on his desk grading papers but he vowed to never, ever, _ever _do it again.

The desks Mahora gave the teachers were, like the chairs, extremely uncomfortable. There was a pen print in his cheek too.

Sighing, the Welsh boy adjusted the glasses on his nose and furiously scrubbed at his face with a tissue. Asuna-san was probably having a fit right about now or she definitely would later when Konoka-san told her he hadn't been there last night. Maybe he should just finish up his work and stall until she calms down?

If she ever does?

"Why do these things happen to me..." Negi lamented quietly, idling marching two fingers across the crinkled papers. First there was being sent here out of the blue after graduation and then there was Asuna and her panties (his face was warming, stop that!) and then Library Island...The door cracks open and in a slight burst of panic, he sits up ramrod straight with a death grip on a nearby pen. "H-hell-"

"Ah, Negi-kun." It's Takamichi. And only Takamichi. Honestly, there was no reason to be so jumpy today... "Seems like you pulled an all nighter," the older man teases and Negi could feel the blood rushing to his cheeks. Was it that easy to tell? After a second thought, he decided that maybe it was easy to pick out: rumpled clothes, bed hair, papers on the floor...

He laughed nervously. "Ha ha, I guess I did. It was odd, I didn't think I was tired and then..." he swept a hand over the desk as a way of explaining what happened next. "I suppose I'm still not used to this teacher thing."

Casually walking towards his desk (almost gliding actually, he moves like a fighter, doesn't he?) Takamichi flashed him a quick and odd little smile. "You're doing just fine."

Negi smiled back but the positive upturn of his lips soon faded into a thoughtful frown. Fine? Was he doing fine? Sure, academically his students had done quite well for his class but what about...what about...

"Shouda-san..."

"Hmm?"

Negi jumps a bit, once again laughing as if his life depended on it. "Did...did I say that out loud? I didn't mean to it's just..."and there he stopped talking. There was no way to explain it. Takamichi was...his better in almost every way, how do you tell someone who you look up to that you felt inadequate, helpless, that you were afraid? He couldn't tell him during the "vampire" incident and...even though nothing happened yet...he couldn't tell him about this either.

He wouldn't run away. He'd make sure that he'd do his absolute-

_Your best? It would be better if you didn't try at all._

"Negi-kun?"

He looked up and found himself staring right at Takamichi's nose. When he'd get there? (Focus, Negi!) Did it matter? Did..did anything he did matter? What if-what if it didn't and Shouda-san d-...d-d-...

Well, the answer was obvious. He just wouldn't let her. He was her teacher and as such she was his responsibility, the Dean put her in 3-A for a reason so he had better live up to those expectations! The smile he put on his face was less faked this time and something in Takamichi's kneeling posture relaxed. Had he been worried?

"It's nothing, really! I must go freshen up for class though," the boy declared, standing up before his friend decided to pry. "It was nice seeing you, Takamichi!" Now was the time! He pulled open the door to the hallway and instinctively froze at the sight of red hair. It was Asuna-san...but...she wasn't paying attention to him at all, just looking down the hallway with this face...like she lost something very dear to her...

"Asuna-san?" he ventured, following her gaze but not seeing anyone. "Is everything alright?"

The girl's head snapped back to him so fast, that he could have sworn he heard her neck crack. "I-It's nothing, right?" she started a bit nervously but then picked up speed. "Everything is fine, isn't it? Nothing is going on, right?"

Negi didn't know what to say. Why was she panicing like this? Did something happen? "A-asuna-san...wha-"

"Ah, Asuna-kun." Takamichi. "Glad to see you're taking some initiative with your studies, making sure your teacher gets to class on time." It was like someone had pushed a button or flicked a switch. At one moment, she was almost hysterical with an unexplained fear and the next laughing nervously and blushing like normal. Perhaps he was reading too much into it, Nekane said that he did that sometimes. Asuna-san was the type to over-react to things (like finding him in her bed, it wasn't like he did it on purpose!).

It was probably nothing.

* * *

_In the classroom..._

Class 3-A was feeling kind of empty to the child teacher. He walked in, dodging a variety of traps set by the Narutaki twins like always but when he turned to face the class...

What class!?

Kasuga, Misora. Absent. Rainyday, Zazie. Absent...Akashi, Yuna...Lingshen, Chao (wow, must be a really bad flu or something)...Sasaki, Makie...Shiina, Sakurako...Okochi, Akira...Izumi, Ako...Karakuri, Chachamaru and McDowell, Evangeline. Konoka-san was not looking well at all, practically collapsed on her desk while Sakurazaki-san hovered over her despite not looking all that healthy either.

"Ah, Konoka-san, would you like to visit the nurse?" He was really concerned about her, she was always so...happy and lively, it just looked very wrong to see her acting like a wet noodle. She was pale, shivering and even from where he stood there was the faint sheen of sweat on her forehead. Why she came to class anyway was a mystery. He was flattered, really he was, but honestly!

"Mou...after class, Negi-sensei..."

He was actually starting to feel...a little guilty... "Alright, since so many are absent, it'll just be a quiet translating session today of page 237. Be sure to ask questions if you have trouble!" The amount of false cheer in his voice almost made him wince but he sucked it in and started patrolling the classroom. He had to remind the twins twice to do the work and Asakura-san to write English not articles, the gossip from the trio of cheerleaders stopped when he approached, Yukihiro-san and Asuna-san were...quiet today. He knew he had said "quiet" but he didn't actually _expect _quiet. Any other teacher might think that a good thing but Negi?

Bad omen.

After his third trip around the classroom, he realized that he had been avoiding the back left corner. When it was just Evangeline-san, one who had not only sat through this class for fifteen years but also was a fluent English speaker, and Chachamaru-san, it was excusable. But now there was also Shouda-san and it was just unbecoming behavior of a gentleman (at least, he was pretty sure it was...).

The girl didn't look like she was paying attention to anything but Higashikuni-san was watching him like a hawk. It was making him a bit nervous...he wasn't going to get hauled off for invading royalty's personal space, was he? It was almost like dealing with the Queen of England in a way except that 1) He had never met the Queen of England and 2) He was sure that he would never be teaching her either.

Maybe he should try again later.

And that was when the boy standing behind Shouda-san winked. With that simple gesture Negi no longer felt like lasers were boring into his head. How'd he do that anyway? The feeling was comparable to the chill that ran down his spine everytime Evangeline-san had that "I'm scheming" expression on her face but...Higashikuni-san wasn't a vampire. Or an evil mage...

He glanced over the boy again. At least...he didn't think so...surely the Dean would have told him if he was, right? The boy-in-question's one visible blue eye rolled and he made an open handed motion towards his charge. Was that an invitation?

'Thank you!' Negi mouthed and he got an easy smile in turn.

"S-shouda-san," The boy straightened his shoulders as he stood by her desk. "Are you done with the page yet?"

The girl hummed lazily, idly fingering the metal tassel by her ear. "What does it matter?"

What does it matter...what does it matter! For a second or so he just stared at her (did she really just say 'what does it matter' to her teacher!?).

"Of course it matters! Your performance impacts your grades, what about your schooling?"

She looked at him in a sideways manner, maybe it was the angle but he thought she seemed...softer somehow. Or just that much more tired. "You say that, as if I will be able to graduate," she commented casually and he almost scratched his head in confusion. What?

"I-I don't understand..."

She snorted. "Of course no-" she bit off her words into a hiss of pain, hand snapping to her right shoulder, making him jump.

"A-are you alright?"

The glare he got could melt through steel. "Does it _look_ like I am well?"

"Well...no..." At that moment, there was an ominous metal hiss of a sword sliding out of its sheath. What was- "Higashikuni-san! What are you doing?" The boy glanced at him, with this odd smirk on his face. And then-

* * *

_That sounded like breaking glass. A rock? Some student? I hope one of the staff can-_

_A dark blur. What was that? Was it-was it heading-_

_Someone was in the way-no! I have to see, I have to protect everyone! It-_

_A flash of silver._

_Is that the ceiling? How-pain!_

_My, my head! Why aren't I moving? Screams...something's happening! Why can't I-_

_I know that sound._

_Gunshot._

* * *

His vision was swimming but he could just make out the dark waterstain that plagued the ceiling of his classroom and this blob...no...wait. He squinted from behind his glasses and there was a soft metal tinkle. It was...Shouda-san but why...why was she _on_ him like this? His brain still wasn't working properly, he could only gape at her. First in shock and then in horror as he noticed a spreading dark red stain on her blouse.

"You are such a child, sensei," he heard her say lightly with a slight warble in her voice. "You should be more...careful..." The weight on him increased as she just kind of...collapsed on him. It took about a second for the warm, sticky feeling of blood soaking through his clothes to snap him into reality. He wiggled out from underneath her (feeling more than a little guilty about it) and turned her over, applying the pressure that his limited medical skills told him to do. One of the students was helping him, was it Sasaki Makie? No wait, wasn't she absent? Sakurako? Misa then?

Suddenly, he was pressing the ground. Where'd she-?

"Negi-kun, I'll take it from here."

It took him a while to place the voice but he could only blink. That was Seruhiko-san, wasn't it? He was fairly sure...but didn't he teach at the other side of the building? He got here pretty quickly...

Where was Takamichi?

And Shouda-san...

She wasn't...was she?

He stood up, not wanting to think about it anymore, and staggered his way to the front of the classroom. His desk was just like he had left it but just a few feet beyond it, the floor was littered with tiny, gleaming shards of glass. The girls were getting back to their feet, clinging to each other or a desk.

"What the hell was that!?" He looked up and for a moment, he couldn't remember the speaker's name. He had memorized the class roster, what was wrong with him? Oh, Hasegawa Chisame. That's right...He was staring.

He opened his mouth to explain, to tell them that everything was going to be okay and that the staff would be able to have it under control but before he could form the words, he realized that he would be lying. He didn't know anything and he obviously couldn't _do_ anything, he had no right to try and comfort them with those words.

So instead, nothing came out at all.

* * *

_In the Dean's office..._

Takamichi felt sorry for the old man. Really, he did but in his opinion the pity party rightfully belonged to a certain child teacher. The kid had enough on his plate: teaching, working on assignments for his Magister Magi position, balancing his social life, geez, the ten year old was busier than him. Living up to your own mistakes was one thing. It builds character.

But for him to suffer through someone else's?

"We still don't know how they did it and so quickly. Some kind of magical dampner effect that completely circumvented our methods for detecting intruders..."

This was gonna get lengthy, he could tell. Damn, he needed a smoke.

"Whoever it is," he butt in, not feeling sorry at all for having ruined his fellow teacher's no doubt well prepared presentation. "They're strategists. They didn't touch the barrier but just interfered with whomever could monitor it."

"Those with an innate magical ability," the Dean finished, looking deep in thought. "I thought I had gotten a suspiciously good night's sleep!"

"That being said," It was Kataragi. Good man, whenever he found himself with just an empty pack he could always borrow a smoke off of him. But personally, Takamichi thought it high time the man got rid of his sunglasses and goatee look. "This was a rather close call. The Emperor won't be pleased with another one."

"You let me take care of that." The old man asserted. "As of now, we can do three things: Attempt to alter the barrier." Ouch. That was one pain in the butt task right there...the thing was several decades old and well crafted with so many interlocking parts that he just gave up on anything past "It protects us from stuff". Not to mention that any attempts to change its purpose, meant taking it down altogether.

"Take it down altogether." Wait...what!?

"There isn't enough magus in Mahora to protect an unguarded campus, there's barely enough as it is." Hmm, Professor Akashi. He had a daughter in Negi-kun's class, Yuna was her name. Basketball team. Either he just didn't want to say it or he honestly didn't know but if the barrier came down...

Then they had a fully powered Dark Evangel on their hands as well. Forget full moon escapades, it would be like a localized disaster that only the missing Thousand Master could subdue. The chibi was in history books, he could just imagine hordes of newly crafted dolls razing the campus...

Well, wouldn't that be fun?

"Or..." Everyone was holding their breath. Him included. "We buy time. A class trip should be coming up soon, we can see how it goes until then."

A month. They can handle a month right?

* * *

_In the med room..._

So.

She was still alive.

Sen blinked slowly, slightly disappointed to see that this white washed ceiling had no countable tiles. What else in this room was different? She didn't know why she was so curious all of the sudden but it was something to do. It was greatly like the other numerous rooms she had woken up in: white, dull green curtains with harshly gleaming metal rails/instruments, uncomfortable looking chairs...

Ah. Well, she supposed it to be more than a little illogical of her to expect to see her father all the way out here. She didn't mean to, but she almost smiled.

"I did not disappoint you, did I, Tai?" she asked him idly and she saw his jaw clench. He was very disappointed. She knew exactly which subjects hit a nerve and it always gave her some dark form of satisfaction when she took advantage of that knowledge. It wasn't like he didn't deserve it.

Her bodyguard suddenly began to mime knocking on a door. A visitor.

"Who?"

This one was a little strange. He began to "cut" something in midair like he was chopping a vegetable, blinking frequently as if he had dust in his eyes. Tears? Cutting something...crying while cutting, no, being made to cry because-? Oh.

Negi.

Her...teacher...had this somber mood plastered all over his face as if he was heading off to a funeral. She couldn't quite understand why, it wasn't like he knew her. And she was alive. And awake this time around too. If she could get off the bed without feeling like she was stabbing her shoulder with a splintered chopstick, she might have even done a little victory dance. Well, not really, but she felt like she would if it wasn't so nonsensical.

"Why are you here, Negi?" she asked the boy as he sat down in a stiff chair.

"I-I said I would protect you..." he began sadly. "But I didn't even move."

"There was nothing you could do," she told him bluntly. Was the boy sorry because he failed her personally? Or was it that he had failed some goal he had set for himself but couldn't see the issue for what it was. Or didn't want to. Maybe. Whatever.

"I could have-"

"What? Chant an incantation in the time it took that thing to cross the room? Even if you got it off _in a room full of mundane girls_, what then?"

Her teacher paled impressively. "I'll be turned into an ermine..."

"You are an idiot." She rolled over so her back was facing him. "Leave." Her good mood was gone now, no thanks to him...For several minutes there was a silence she didn't like. It was somehow large, filling the room until it was almost suffocating. The boy was stupid and even though she told him to leave...

Did he have to? It was...nice...to know...that someone...There was a cough and she rolled back, fully prepared to verbally shred Takeru to pieces but the words died when it wasn't her protector there but that girl...seat 3. Sen sighed. "What do you want."

"That thing in the classroom," the girl said immediately. "What was it? Why?"

"If the answers are worth your life, sit down."

Negi could have lost his head today. Just because he was in front of her and therefore was in the way. She didn't know who was after her, but to them, there was no such thing as an innocent bystander. There was collateral damage. And-

And there was a small squeak of a chair being occupied.

"Tell me." Unlike at lunch that time, there was no notebook, no black box. Just a red headed girl with an intense expression and a large band aid over a gash in her arm, having been near the windows. Sen stared at her. She really wanted to know that badly? Did she think she was kidding? Was she not taking this seriously? After what happened today was she still willing to...what a strange girl.

Absolutely bizarre. Like her pineapple hair.

* * *

_Outside..._

This felt strangely...like a deja vu...She was there, walking away but he _had _to talk to her. It couldn't wait! He had made up his mind, if he missed this chance he might never again get up the courage to ask!

"Tatsumiya-san!" he called out, feeling his lungs burn. Why were there so many people out? Why was he so short!? "Tatsumiya-san! Wait! Please!" There were a lot of highschoolers around this area and there were all doing a bang up job of blocking his view. It was bad enough trying to avoid being inadvertently panty-flashed by the taller girls but there were so many feet to trip over...

He burst through and nearly collided face (to stomach) first with the very person he was chasing. "Ah..."

"You wanted to talk to me, Negi-sensei?" Tatsumiya Mana asked flatly, right eyebrow quirked.

For a horrifying moment, just looking up into her stoic face, his mind went blank. It wasn't a nice feeling. "I-I was going to...I mean, that is..." He finally found purchase on something. "That was you that stopped the attacker in class, wasn't it?"

"Un," she grunted softly before closing her right eye and letting a razor like smirk flicker onto her face. It was like ice had been dumped into his shoes. No wonder most of 3-A avoided her! "So, Negi-sensei. How much is it to you?"

She knew. He had no idea _how_ she knew considering he thought of it only ten minutes ago but she did. It made things both easier and harder. How much could he spare...?

"30000 Yen for three weeks?"

"I don't know..." she mused, tapping her chin. If it were anyone else he might think them teasing. "I don't have a high tolerance for failure."

"I know the basics already!" Well, he thought he did, he did know how to use his artifact guns after all. And he was a decent shot...he hadn't much practice with moving targets but... "Please! Tastumiya-san!" So he was begging, he was still ten. He was entitled to act his age outside of class!

"Shooting range, tomorrow at five."

He began to nod but then- "...In the morning...?"

Her smirk reappeared as she turned on her heel."Bring the money. Don't be late."

After she vanished back into the crowd of highschoolers, Negi blinked and began to look around as if he was just waking up from a dream. At first, he couldn't believe himself but then...it wasn't like it went badly...Five in the morning! What was he getting himself into!?

* * *

Notes of dubious importance:

Tai: Sen's nickname for Takeru. It means (or it should mean) 'object.'

Negi: Negi's name is the same word for 'onion.'

I know the story is far from perfect but a review telling me where I am falling short would be great so I could fix it. I'm not looking for uber review numbers, even just one a chapter would be fine to keep me on track.


	4. To Guard Her

This is for fun, nothing very serious but I want to write it anyway. This is a Mahou Sensei Negima fic based after the events of Library Island and the final exams. During the Eva arc, Negi made a vow to himself. Now, a certain transfer student will test his resolve. Even against magic, magic cannot solve everything.

Mahou Sensei Negima!

Ofuda no Kokoro

_Hitomi tojita shikai no hate de Kimi no egao Sagashiteta...  
At the edge of my sight, with my eyes closed, I was searching for your smiling face..._

* * *

It was a controversial little spell, and he had been so proud when he managed to make it but...well...electric shocks weren't exactly healthy.

As soon as Asuna-san tripped the small wire by the door that indicated that she had left the room, a handy little rune that he had scratched into his palm (just the top layer of skin, anything deeper was dangerous) zapped him with enough juice to light up a small light bulb for a second or two. He was sure there would be no permanent damage, he had done it before in order to sneak late night trips to the library, but the resulting hair style was a pain to get rid of.

Good thing Konoka-san was a deep sleeper.

"Hmmm," the boy mused as he adjusted the small glasses on his nose. "Now where did I put that sock...?" Where indeed. He'd wake up Chamo-kun to help him look but even Negi had to admit that the ermine wasn't the quietest of creatures.

Ah. There it was. How'd it get inside the lamp shade?

As he was tying his shoes, Negi found his gaze straying towards the small cat shaped alarm clock Asuna-san had. It read 4.45 and as he watched, the hand twitched to 46. Asuna-san woke up really early didn't she? Doing her paper route...she worked hard and here he was, always causing trouble for her. He couldn't imagine waking up this early every morning, he wondered how she did and still managed to find it in her heart to forgive him time and time again.

Shoving the thought aside for later (it was no time to be depressed!) he made sure to grab his staff and two of his artifact guns. They had been quite the expensive gift from his sister (technically, cousin) Nekane, specially tailored in the Magical world to mimic pactio artifacts. They could channel magical power and could even be small time batteries in desperate situations. He hardly ever used them but he resolved to change that. A gun was still less conspicuous than a glowing staff.

The door was shut carefully and he jogged down the hall and down the stairs to the front entrance of the building. No one seemed to be around...

Quickly he hopped on his staff and pulled on the front to shoot straight up. This high up, he figured, that if anyone saw him they'd hopefully pass it off as a moving cloud or a figment of their imagination.

Hopefully.

He crossed his fingers around his staff.

The sun had not quite broken through the horizon line but he could see the sky lightening. It was a shame there were no birds out to fly along with, flying this early reminded him of when-

Hm?

He slowed his speed down to just a little above a hover as he peered at the base of the World Tree. It looked like someone was there. Curious and slightly concerned (It's probably nothing, Negi!) he began to lazily drift down to get a better look. It seemed like they were dressed in red, a middle schooler then? Whoever it is, they are out awfully early. Should he go down and ask what was wrong? What if there was nothing? What if he ended up being late! Tatsumiya-san might...shoot him or something!

Beginning to panic (how long had he been lazing around? What time was it!) he swung his staff around...and then the wind brought the faint sound of clinking metal to his ears. Familiar.

"Shouda-san...?" he asked no one as he looked back over his shoulder, hesitating. Where was Higashikuni-san? Why was she out here, she should still be healing! As if she could hear him, the girl moved. The black shade of her hair gave way to the porcelain tone of her skin and he knew she was looking at him. He should probably go down there, it wasn't like his flying was a secret. Not to her anyway. Tatsumiya-san would understand, right? But when he began to move in her direction-

She vanished.

Negi blinked a couple of times and even rubbed at his eyes but she didn't reappear. Had he...had he just been imagining it? Y-Yeah, like she would wear the school uniform at five in the morning! Lack of sleep hallucinations maybe...

That was probably it!

* * *

_At the shooting range..._

Very few people knew how Tatsumiya Mana's mind worked and that was a good thing. If they couldn't figure out your thought patterns then they couldn't predict you. And if they couldn't predict you then it was all the more difficult for them to kill you. And Mana was somewhat proud of the fact that she was very hard to kill.

_Don't be so modest._

Speed was the one thing her mind had in abundance. She didn't need to be particularly smart, which her grades probably reflected, but she would stumble upon the right answer in a tenth of the time it would take anyone else to puzzle through it. When it came to dodging bullets? Speed was a very good thing. For her social life? Not so much. When your mind moved fast, inevitably, you left everyone else behind. It was hard to relate to "slow" or emotional thinkers, which was about 80 percent of everyone she met, so she often didn't try.

_What would be the point?_

And besides, having the ability to make grown men piss themselves without even trying never ceased to be amusing. Unless that man was Serizawa-taichou.

Then it wasn't funny.

She should really work on that...she had until the festiva-

He was late. The boy could fly across campus in five minutes, what could have possibly been the reason? Over-slept? Caught by Asuna because he didn't think to get her "involved?" Grading papers or some-

"You're late." Something foul was wafting off of him that hadn't been there yesterday and she unconsciously shifted her stance. A possession? "100 leg squats." His eyes widened but he crouched down to do what she told him to without complaint. She waited until he was about sixty squats in to make sure his focus was firmly else where before shifting her sight into "that Other realm."

His aura was normal. Nothing was altering it, nothing draining it but there was a single, red, spiritual thread tied to his right wrist and stretching off into thin air. Should she cut it? It might trigger something, it could be perfectly harmless, was it attached to another person or a demon, why was it there, who put it there, what was it doing-

In the span of half a milisecond, she resolved to just let it be.

"You're done."

Her child teacher stopped mid-squat, bewilderment on his face. "I messed up my count?"

"You did. Come over to one of the targets and we'll see how your aim is." The boy took a step towards her...and promptly fell flat on his face. She felt her lips quirk but swallowed the laugh. She did have a reputation to maintain, after all. "Some time today, Negi-sensei."

"I-I don't understand..." he moaned into the ground as he tried to sit up. "I can run for miles, why do my legs feel like jelly now?"

"You run using different leg muscles," she decided to explain. Shouldn't he know this already? Then again, he was only ten. "Just go slow." It took him an agonizingly boring two minutes for him to get to where she wanted him. Perhaps she was being too harsh? He was ten-

And he needed a lot of work-

There was only limited amount of time to improve in. If she decided he was even worth teaching, she would put him through hell. _That _she swore.

"That target right there is someone who has proven themself a danger." She pointed towards the paper cutout, feeling more than a little silly but also deadly serious. "How would you stop them?"

She took a step back and watched as her teacher raised a...toy gun. She snatched it away from him, slightly disgusted. It was horrifically light with a flared barrel, an overly large hammer and a trigger that she just _knew_ was going to get "sticky" and jam some months down the road of continued use. Gun makers in the magical world had obviously lost their touch, to the point where she could justify whoever made this thing being brain dead.

"You are not using this." Negi-sensei just stared at her, eyes wide. Well he couldn't use his guns and she didn't have the key to the storage shed so...with great reluctance, Mana placed the Desert Eagle she had on her (_always ready to pull that trigger, right?_) in his hands. He wouldn't have it for long but just to make sure...

"Anything happens to this and I will shoot you. Understand?" His eyes got wider and she felt satisfied. Slapping a pair of protective ear muffs on his head she declared, "Fire away."

Her gun was heavy and awkward to him, she could see it immediately. She could also see that in spite of that, he managed to keep it steady as he squeezed the trigger. The seven loud cracks were familiar sounds and on reflex she found her eyes tracking each bullet individually. After her gun clicked to signify it spent, Negi pulled the muffs off to ask, "How'd I do?"

"Horrible." She told him honestly.

"What? But I-" he took a glance at the paper target. "I hit what I was aiming for..."

"And that's exactly the problem. You have a gun in your hands, Negi-sensei. Do you know what that means?"

"I-"

"Look at the target and tell me what you shot." She was...disappointed. She shouldn't be, she had expected results like this but couldn't keep from crossing her arms over her stomach in irritation. He was better off taking martial arts or something with that kind of aim.

"Well, the hands-"

"And what does that stop him from doing?" she interrupted his listing.

"Um, grabbing anything...?"

"So instead he uses his feet, a headbutt, his arms to strangle a hostage or just runs for reinforcements. Hand wounds don't hurt enough, you left him completely mobile to harm someone." She took her gun from him, resisting the urge to look over it for nicks and dings. "You also do not shoot above the knee caps, take them out. The elbows are useless targets on something mobile. The shoulder will do better and if he is really intent, ain for the lower stomach. And Negi-sensei."

"Y-yes?"

_You're frightening him. It isn't amusing now._

"It's a gun, sensei. If it means saving a life, don't hesitate to kill him." Mana made a "finger gun" and fired it at the target's head. She waited for the inevitable lecture on morals, ethics and the worth of human life. Some indication of horror or reluctance and then the following debate...and waited.

She couldn't help but to glance at him when nothing came. The boy's head was bowed, fists clenched so hard that his arms were trembling with the strain. What was he thinking? Why wasn't he saying anything?

The tension suddenly bled out of him, draining out into the air. "I know that, Tatsumiya-san. I'm sorry. I'll do better."

She had to blink. "You're serious about this, aren't you?"

Her teacher nodded firmly. "I made a promise last school year that I would protect all of my students," he said in as deep a voice as his age would allow. "I'm going to keep it!"

Mana closed her eyes and after a couple of seconds opened them again. "You have the fee, correct?" He dug around in his pockets for a sizeable wad of yen notes, he must have made a mass withdrawal at the bank. She took it, of course. "The contract is set. Tomorrow, same place, same time, sensei." The million watt smile he gave her was almost physically painful. He wanted to protect everyone? She remembered when she felt the same way...and nearly didn't survive breaking that promise.

He was ten. A very mature ten but still ten. And protecting people...was a grown up game she couldn't teach him how to win.

Two years-

_You shouldn't dwell on it_, her shadow told her and obligingly, Mana let her mind drift to other things as her teacher took to the air, and she reloaded her gun. She set her stance: left foot behind right, shoulder width apart. Raised the gun: just below the shoulder, do not lock the elbow. Eyed the target: Man shaped paper cutout in an open stance, completely non-threatening...but as she stared at it the blank silhouette seemed to suddenly gain a face...

She squeezed the trigger.

Bang!

There was a giggle.

_And you're dead!_

* * *

_In the med room..._

Higashikuni Onmaeyoshi Daiji Takeru, he thought as he stared out the window.

His name was too long. When it takes four years to learn how to spell a name out and even longer just to be able to say it properly, then the damn thing needed to be cut short! Whose bright idea was that anyway? He made a face at his reflection, pulling his right eyelid down and blowing a soundless rasberry. Maybe it was his father. He supposed his mother might have chosen the name(s) too, maybe they alternated? Thought it funny? Was it his grandfather? Had his family been there, did they know when he had been born?

He liked to think they had cared.

Maybe.

He let his hand drop and turned his head, feeling something, and saw Shizuna-nee entering the curtained off portion of the room. He waved at her. Why not? She was nice, letting him have any drink he wanted from the vending machine! She also called him brave and that made him feel a little guilty. Brave. Him? Of course not, but the thought made him smile wider.

It faded a little, when the counselor bent over the occupied bed and placed her palm on the _highness'_ forehead.

"It's still quite high but I think it has gone down some," the woman said, patting the girl's hair. Takeru resisted the urge to pout. So it went down. Who cared? Not him. Hell, he was _happy_ that she was taking longer to get over it. The more time she spent ill, the less time she spent torturing him. He wouldn't go as far as to wish death on her, if only because of what her father would do to him if the _princess _did end up biting the dust.

Shizuna-nee gave him an expectant look so he just raised a lazy thumbs up.

"You have been up all night but you don't like her very much, do you?"

He scowled darkly, shaking his head rapidly from side to side. Don't like her very much? Hate wasn't even a strong enough word in his opinion. Maybe loathe worked. Yes, he _loathed_ her.

"You are entitled to dislike someone, I won't be a judge," the woman with the HUGE cans said. Not that he was looking... "That being said, I still do hope she recovers. I have paperwork to do," here she gave a long suffering sigh as he smirked at her. "But do take care Takeru-kun."

The boy watched her leave, feeling a little lost. That was sudden. So he would just...stay here...then?

"What a bother..." Great. _Princess _was awake, she had probably been pretending while Shizuna-nee was all worried about her too. Did it ever occur to her to not be such a bitch all the time? He honestly couldn't figure out why her father hadn't disowned her already but he supposed he never would. She was like a snake and snakes always had more than one face.

And more than just one poisonous fang.

"Tai. Come here." He did so, slightly grinding his teeth together. "Closer." He rolled his eyes. What did she want now?

He got his answer when Sen reached up with her good arm and jabbed him hard in the shoulder. In the explosion of pain that followed, he could have sworn that his arm had been ripped off. By the kami it hurt, waves of heat were radiating from...no wait, fuck! She reopened it! He tore away from her hand, swearing loudly in his mind. Shizuna-nee had stitched it up but if it was bleeding again...if only you could kill someone with a look.

"It is a shame it was not your neck." He snarled at her but stopped as soon as she started to smirk at him. "I did not give you permission to pull away, Tai."

He stiffened.

"Now."

He woodenly approached the bed again, mentally bracing himself. When he thought back, she hadn't hurt him in a while...probably because she was laid up unconscious from that shoulder of hers. This really was over due. The thought wasn't comforting as his charge casually placed a hand on his shoulder and slowly increased pressure on the wound he got while defending her with her thumb.

It was like she was shoving glass into him.

"Does this hurt?" He wanted to scream. She knew damn well it hurt. "Does it, Tai?"

His body was beginning to shake as white spots started to appear in his vision. It was hurting so much, his toes were going cold and numb...He was biting down on his lower lip, he just couldn't make a single noise-

Was that blood he was tasting?

And then she removed her hand. She stopped early, was all he could think as he absently pulled his shirt out of the gash. Didn't require him to beg or anything. The stitches had to be redone, that was obvious but he had half expected her to pull them out. But she didn't. That's weird...What was even weirder was the way she was staring at her hand. The tip of her thumb was red from the blood leaking through his uniform's jacket top and she was just...looking at it.

Her _highness_ wasn't actually feeling _guilty_ for the first time in her life, was she?

"Go to class," she whispered softly, turning her hand this way and that as if she had never seen it before. "Leave me."

He was more than happy to obey.

* * *

_In the classroom..._

Asakura Kazumi had the irritating hunch that she had somehow missed her chance at a scoop.

The feeling started from when Negi-sensei had first walked into the class room with pretty boy behind him and from there it just got more and more annoying. There had been no warning, no hints, clues or any sort of breadcrumbs for her to follow but that didn't stop it from staring her in the face.

"I just don't believe it..." she muttered under her breath, laying her head on her folded arms. "What are the odds?"

"Well," the airy and breathy voice of her row mate, Aisaka Sayo, came out of thin air. "They say danger has a way of bringing people together."

Kazumi gave the air a flat look. "It would make sense if it was Shouda then, she saved him, remember? But Negi...and Mana?" That's right, folks! 3-A's cute little teacher had gone from being mostly indifferent towards the back right corner of the class to actively trying to get Tatsumiya Mana's attention. The teacher and the miko. The cheerful and the brooding. The daisy and the rose. The sky and earth. The...um...vanilla and chocolate?

Kazumi almost winced.

Bad metaphors.

Anyway, it was a match made in...well, Hell if you were to ask Iincho and it was bound to be a popular article but at the moment she had nothing. Zilch. Nada. It was like their teacher had hit puberty overnight and _of course_ he would go after not only one of the most exotic girls in the class but Number 2 as of the last cup size measurement. But ten was a bit young to start liking girls, wasn't it? It was a puzzle and...

God damn it!

It was like staring at an over exposed negative of Godzilla. It was there! It was _right there_ and she couldn't do a thing about it until school was over.

"You're going to get grey hairs like this, Asakura."

Smiling sheepishly, Kazumi fiddled with her trademark purple hair clip. "It's just frustrating, Sayo-chan." The bell rang, signaling the end of English and she had to sit there as the enigma walked out the door to make way for Nitta the Ogre. Yay. Math and then history, and then music until she could even begin to track her teacher down. "Very frustrating."

For a moment, Sayo's form shimmered into sight. "Why don't you ask Tatsumiya-san?"

Well there was an idea. Kazumi turned her head to look behind her and discovered, to her horror, that Mana's almost luminescent blue eyes were already staring straight at her. She turned her head back towards the front of the class and got out her math text book.

"Sayo-chan."

"Hmm?"

"If you wanted me to join you as a ghost, you could have just said so."

* * *

_In a cottage somewhere..._

"You must understand that I have a vested interest in the boy."

Chachamaru slowed to a stop just outside of the study door. The voice had a 99.9 percent match to that of her Master, with several odd inflections hinting at slight nervousness, anger and amusement. There was only a 16.43259 percent chance that the situation could harm the Master but without further imformation a detailed analysis could not be conducted. Caution was advised.

"And we have an interest in the girl. Through his own actions, our interests now contrast."

There was no match for the second voice. The inflection strongly suggested warm amusement. Friendly character profile created based on audio, previous estimate of danger lowered to 12.72165 percent. Even though it wasn't necessarily part of her normal functions, the gynoid also ran a series of tests related to Negi-sensei. There was only one profile matching the description of "boy" that had interacted with the Master. The unknown factor's "girl" had a 83.98315 percent chance of being the transfer, character profile number 138, Natsuko Sen.

Nervousness calculated into equation: 22.9 percent chance of Negi-sensei being in danger from unknown.

"If they do cross, why bother coming to me?"

"We won't make enemies needlessly. We promise Negi Springfield's safety."

There was a silence and after a moment, Chachamaru opened the door. "Master, your tea is ready." There was no one else in the room. Spacial scans showed little variances in the surroundings. But someone had been here. Of that, she was 99.9 percent sure.

The little blonde vampire blew her nose loudly, clutching what looked like a teddy bear with fangs. According to body scans, her fever had gone down 1.3 degrees in the past half hour and nasal congestion had also decreased 0.6 percent. It was decent progress. The symptoms matched the common flu but there was no influenza strain in her databases that would interfere with a person's magic.

"About time!"

She had yet to tell her Master what the "flu" was doing to her.

* * *

Annoying chapter. There were many things I wanted to cover, far too many things but cutting them out was just depressing. Ah well, next chapter I suppose. I originally wanted Mana to be thinking on several tracks at once and while it showed what I intended her thought patterns to be, it just confused the hell out of me. And if I'm confused, the readers are going to be confused. But I don't like the bastardized version I used instead but I can't have everything. A pity.


	5. Dare Her Prince Approach?

This is for fun, nothing very serious but I want to write it anyway. This is a Mahou Sensei Negima fic based after the events of Library Island and the final exams. During the Eva arc, Negi made a vow to himself. Now, a certain transfer student will test his resolve. Even against magic, magic cannot solve everything.

Mahou Sensei Negima!

Ofuda no Kokoro

_Yurete iru omokage ni Bokura wa yume Daki kakenuketeku...Sou..._  
_We embrace our dreams and run through the wavering facade...that's right..._

* * *

This, she thought, was a dream.

She was sitting on a plush, red, high-backed chair that had it's seams covered with thick gold thread braids, golden tassels hanging off the armrests. The room seemed dark. There were two bright orbs of light in the corners, atop shadowed staffs but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't see the lamps clearly and the light they gave didn't reach most of the room. The area immediately around the bulbs was almost pitch black and yet there was a lighted circle around her.

There were people lining the darkened walls of the room but shadows covered everything but their mouths. They were talking and she could hear the muted murmur their voices made but the words were lost. All of them were much taller than her, some faceless stranger had even ruffled her hair. Her hands seemed smaller than usual and her kimono had little childish foxes on it; how old was she?

"Natsuko-hime." An old man was suddenly standing there in front of her, dressed in the traditional garb of a Shinto priest and just behind him, she could see the blurry form of a familiar figure: her father. She looked the priest over; he had many wrinkles, a thin mustache and a shaved head, she didn't recognize him. But he had called her by her birth name, he has to be somewhat important to her, right?

Her father said something, his prematurely old voice she knew like the sound of her own, but what he said was a mystery. He suffered from the same "murmur" the others did.

"I shall do my best to persuade the Will of Heaven to relieve you of your burden, my child. Evil clothes you..." the old man was touching her head now and it was making her uncomfortable as he began to chant. This...this stranger was...was this what her father wanted for her? Why? What would it do?

"Father," she almost whimpered. "I do not need a blessing!"

Her father's shoulders slumped a bit as he sighed and said something. The priest's chanting was growing louder as he removed an ofuda from his robes and placed it on her forehead. For the first second, the paper actually stung a little but then it just became like some kind of itch she wasn't allowed to scratch. Another was placed over her heart.

"Father..." she whined, hopping up and down in the seat. She didn't like this. Not at all.

Another slip of paper was slapped on and she almost growled. She wanted them off sooooo badly, why was she sitting through this? The Imperial Crown Prince said something again and she calmed down a little until another sealing paper was put on her stomach. The ritual was almost done and that knowledge just made her even more restless. More eager to undo all of the work.

"You should stop this." She heard this young, female voice say. Was that her? "You will regret it."

The priest kept going and she began to breathe faster, shallower as she realized that he wasn't going to stop. Her stomach was squirming and her palms were becoming clammy as yet another seal was placed on her hip bone.

"Please. Stop."

"You will be free soon, Natsuko-hime." She froze as he raised the last slip to place on the top of her head and she-, even as she watched the seal come closer, the others seemed to burn with such an intensity that she thought her kimono was on fire. This, this should not be happening, what was wrong? Closer...why wasn't anyone stopping him? Couldn't they see that she was in pain?

She felt the paper brush the hairs on her head and something inside her snapped.

NO!

_Sen sat up in the bed suddenly, with the taste of blood in her mouth and cold sweat clinging to her skin._

_"Sen-dono?"_

_She looked to the side and it was that woman from the Dean's office...what was her name? She stared at the lady, struggling to remember, she knew her. She knew she did, why couldn't she remember? Where was- That was right...she had sent him away._

_"Is everything alright?"_

_Sen opened her mouth and heard a rasp even before she tried to form any words. "Water..." she croaked. As the promising cool glass was placed in her hands, the princess began to relax a little. Her shoulder didn't hurt anymore than it had before she fell asleep, it hadn't been that kind of nightmare. That was all it was, right?_

_Maybe she should go outside for a little while...to...clear her head..._

_Just a dream._

* * *

_In the classroom..._

"Why do you carry a sword around anyway?"

Saotome "Paru" Haruna was ashamed of Kagurazaka Asuna. What kind of question was that? Why was he carrying a sword around, wasn't it obvious that he was some kind of super seinen warrior who had been given the unfortunate and yet extremely lucky and unprobable fate of guarding the princess against impossible odds? He _had_ to carry the sword around, the evil forces of darkness don't just give up just because they were in class-

_Paru: Wasn't she here yesterday!?_

Of course somewhere along the line the princess would have to be captured so he could save her, proclaim his love and they live happily ever after! A dramatic tale of forbidden love, danger and _oh my god_ he really was too cute NOT to have his own manga...

She didn't even notice she was drawing her own thoughts until Kazumi stole her sketchbook. Embarassing? More like _mortifying!_

"You shouldn't touch an artist's work without permission, Paparazzi! How would you like it if I stole your camera!?"

Much to her annoyance, Kazumi just waved it out of her reach, staring at it with wide eyes. "Is that-is that supposed to be Shouda? With triple D cups!?" Haruna couldn't help but to notice Takeru's eye get wide at that. Was it the beginnings of that infamous "love-love" reek she was sensing!?

_Paru: Who came up with love-love anyway? Oh wait...that was me..._

"If only you drew more realistic people, Paru, you could have a _real _talent there." Oh yes, Haruna was very disappointed in Asuna.

She snatched her sketchbook back with a burst of frightening speed! "It _is _realistic, thank you very much."

"Yeah, realistically fake..."

How cruel! What a boorish lot who doesn't know the true meaning of genius! Not even if it hit them in the face! As if to prove her point, Haruna tuned and slapped Yue in the face with her sketchbook.

"Ai! What was that for?"

Haruna stared at her short friend, almost unbelieving. Not even Yue could tell when she was expressing herself artistically and she was supposed to be her best friend! How tragic.

"Higashikuni-dono, did you name your sword?" That was a very good question! Why hadn't she thought of asking that? Everyone knows that super seinen warriors name their weapons after their mother or lost loved one in hopes of protecting those close to them or, oh! Even for revenge...full points towards Nagase for getting into the right spirit of things!

_Paru: After all, the girl does think herself a ninja or something..._

The resident boy warrior gave them all a million watt smile, and Haruna quickly doodled in some teeth shine to his picture. He hopped over the teacher's desk, picked up a piece of chalk and as they all leaned forward to see what he was going to write...he scribbled out "Tsurugi" in the worst penmanship Haruna had the pleasure of seeing. He was a swordsman, all physical types have bad handwriting, it was in the Rules for Manga Writers manga she had in her dorm room. It made perfect sense! Although...the sword name seriously needed some work...

Kazumi almost absently snapped off a picture of the black board. "You named your sword...'sword'?"

Asuna snorted. "You just lost about fifty respect points, Tako."

_"That's bad."_

Haruna felt a small shiver go up her spine as she turned towards the back of the room, along with the rest of the class. Zazie Rainyday was looking blankly at the blackboard, but everyone knew she said something. It was kind of hard not to, there was something about that girl, the way she looked at you, the way she smiled, how utterly _silent _she was that just-

There was a short, deep chuckle from Tatsumiya Mana. "I agree."

If there was anyone Haruna would cast as villians in her manga, those two would be it. Forget fantastical perverted tentacle monsters, her own classmates creeped her out enough to give her nightmares.

_Paru: So quiet...how can anyone live keeping their mouth shut all day!?_

When Haruna turned back around, the super cute, super seinen warrior disguised as a student watching over the princess had his hand clamped firmly over his left eye with the Narutaki twins struggling to braid his hair. Injustice! Outrage! They were _ruining _him...! He needed rescuing before he was forever corrupted!

And if she "accidently" copped a feel...well, how can a girl resist?

* * *

_In the med room..._

"Ojousama...is fine?"

"It appears to be just a bad case of the flu, Setsuna. Her fever has broken, it will only be a few days before she's back to normal." Shifting the blankets around the Dean's granddaughter, Minamoto Shizuna swallowed her inclination to laugh. The stoic girl's worry was both adorable and sad. It showed she was dedicated to not just the physical wellbeing of Konoe Konoka, but that she was truly interested in the girl herself. And it was sad because this side of Sakurazaki Setsuna seemed to only be visible when Konoka wasn't awake to see it.

Children these days, making adult decisions for all the wrong reasons but it wasn't her place to correct any of them. She was a counselor, yes, but what good was advice, when it wasn't welcome?

"You'll be the first one to know when she is awake."

The girl paled and then began to redden. "N-no, that's alright. I'll just stop by in later."

Shizuna couldn't help smiling at her in that "Minamoto knows all" way that got on the Dean's nerves more than once. "I'm sure she'll be glad to hear that but you really shouldn't make it a habit of skipping classes to see her though."

Despite her face resembled a beet, Setsuna kept up a tough front. "Ojousama is my top priority."

"Of course," she said to that. Disagreeing wouldn't get her anywhere. "But it would be nice if you two could graduate together, ne?" Letting out a wistful sigh at the girl's expense, she decided to let her off the hook before she started to get light headed. "Feel free to let the Dean know how things are going at this end, if you want."

Stiffly, like always, Setsuna bowed. "Thank you."

"It is no trouble." And it wasn't. It never would be, but speaking of priorities... Shizuna got up from the really uncomfortable chair and crossed the med room to where her other patient lay. The Imperial Third Granddaughter hadn't been much trouble, no trouble at all if you disregarded the commanding way she phrased her requests. All things considered, the girl should have taken much longer to get over her shock-

"Sen-dono?" The bed was empty. Shizuna rolled her eyes upwards and pinched the bridge of her nose right underneath her glasses. "Shit."

* * *

_In the music hall..._

It was like the world was trying its best to leave her behind.

First there was that thing with Tatsumiya and Negi-sensei-, what was up with that? Really? And then Minamoto-sensei asks for Takeru to be dismissed from class. Kazumi could tell from the way the boy tensed and the expression the nurse/counselor was not doing a good job of hiding that something was up. Something big. Another scoop trying to slip out from right under her nose. The public deserved to know!

It wasn't getting away. Not this time. She put her hand in the air.

"Sensei!"

"Asakura, what are you doing?"

Kazumi bit her lip but she couldn't risk talking to someone invisible right now, no matter how badly she wanted to explain to Sayo-chan. "Come on, it's really important!"

Rolling his eyes, Naritaka-sensei turned away from the board where he had been drawing the scale of G for what must have been the third time. Honestly, couldn't Asuna learn any faster? "What's so important Asakura-san?"

Just trust the reporter to have it all figured out. "My time of the month came early." It was like the entire class had a collective stroke and it was damn funny to watch. It was just _biology_, nothing to be ashamed about (although she was never going to use that excuse ever again for anything for as long as she lived). And when the music teacher stopped choking on his saliva, she had a free pass out of class. So she was supposed to go to the nurse's office...and?

Time was a wastin'!

Asakura Kazumi had long since learned the art of sneaking around places you weren't supposed to be in and when it came to the school hallways the trick was this: act like you had every right to be there. It was that simple, as long as you _didn't_ look like you were trying to sneak around, then teachers and students alike didn't bother to think you actually _were _sneaking around. By holding her head high and walking purposefully with her camera bag in her death grip and fire in her eyes, she made it unmolested out into the main courtyard.

Unmolested...hmmm...she'd think of another word later. Paru would just jump all over that one.

There weren't too many people out, school wasn't quite over yet after all, but for some infuriating reason Takeru was no where in sight! How fast did the boy move, she had been right behind him! Geez...freeze frame...what have we here?

"Shouda..." Where the princess was, pretty boy shouldn't be too far behind, right? At first, she almost hadn't recognized her without the Mahora school uniform. Her hair was unbraided and she was without that weird, dinky tassel thingy by her ear. She had a plain white kimono on and that's the only reason Kazumi managed to spot her. Someone wearing a kimono in the middle of a school campus? Yeah, they stand out a bit.

"Shouda! What are you doing out here?" Hey wait a minute...Kazumi flicked her gaze down to the girl's shoulder. "Shouldn't you still be resting...?" Princess was looking...tired was the word that came to her mind. Worn down, weary, tuckered out, wasted...no, not quite the last one. Almost sleepy with how dull her eyes were. "You're ok, aren't you?"

Shouda smiled...maybe a little _too _wide... "You're worried about me," she cooed and warning bells started ringing. "You're", she had said. Not "You are" like the archaic and old fashioned princess she was. "How cute."

"What's wrong with-" there was a thud sound and Kazumi looked around in confusion. What was that? Someone started screaming but when the journalist tried to turn around, her vision blurred horribly. And...and she felt...kind of...cold...

The next thing she knew she was looking up into Shouda's smiling face. "It'll be over soon," the princess told her, patting her on the head like she was some parent comforting a child. "You shouldn't feel a thing."

This didn't make any sense. Had she...had she been shot? Why was Shouda smiling? Hello! She was on the ground for crying out loud, she didn't just end up there because she felt like it! "S-shouda...why...?" It was hard to talk, half of her words couldn't get enough air behind them...just this coppery liquid...oh god. She was dying, wasn't she? She couldn't! She wasn't famous yet!

"Don't cry." She wasn't crying, damn it! "I'll see you on the other side."

And before Asakura Kazumi's eyes, the princess' face began to peel off to reveal...

Kazumi couldn't help her eyes getting wide.

There was absolutely nothing.

And then darkness.

* * *

_At the Tatsumiya Shrine..._

He couldn't find her.

He had searched the entire _fucking school _and he couldn't find her anywhere. For all he knew she was probably dead, bleeding her heart out in a ditch somewhere because he _couldn't find her!_ Where else was there to go? He'd searched the university, the high school, the middle school, the shopping district, then tennis range, the soccer and baseball fields, the shooting range, the old bell tower, the library for as far as he dared, the World Tree Plaza, everywhere, everywhere, _everywhere!_

He opened his mouth but then shut it. It wasn't worth speaking over, just in case she really was alive. An off chance that wasn't looking very probable at this rate-!

"Higashikuni-san!"

Oh for the love of...he would give anything to be able to smack that kid upside the head and make him say 'Takeru.' A moment later, Takeru turned around with a baffled look on his face. What was the kid doing here anyway?

"I heard...I want to help!"

Takeru raised an eyebrow. No offense, but Springfield was vertically challenged and very easy to sense. If it wasn't the _middle of the fucking day _maybe his ability to fly would be of use, but the swordsboy was not going to wait until night to conduct a proper search. So, trying to tell him to _bugger off somewhere else_ and let the "adults" handle this, he patted the kid's head.

Okay, patting done. Now leave...

"Can't find her?"

Both Takeru and Springfield looked up into a nearby tree to see...was it seat 18? Whoever, with a bolt action rifle it looked like. Takeru puzzled for a moment. Where'd a middle schooler get their hands on a gun...in Japan of all places? He had to carry his sword permit everywhere in his wallet for all the police who seemed to like stopping him on the street, he could only imagine the type of legal trouble she could get into.

"Not at all." He gave Springfield a side ways glance. Ok, it was true but where the brat get off answering the question for him? A second after this thought he rolled his eyes upwards. Oh yeah...speaking was usually conducive to question answering...

Damn it, this was taking too long. Sen needed to be found and she needed to be found pronto! He picked a random direction to run in and soon found...er, what is that girl's name? Running along side him.

"I'm coming with you."

Yeah, whatever, just as long as she didn't get in the way...

"I'm coming too!"

The Imperial bodyguard looked from side to side at the people he had somehow managed to pick up for his epic quest, feeling more than a little awkward, dynamically running along like this with two interlopers...but if...but if they could help...

_Her higness _had better not get herself killed before he got there.

When he gets there...

If...

* * *

_Outside by the World Tree..._

"Tai? What are you doing here?" And just when it seemed like it was going to be one of those better days he had to show up, didn't he? There were times when she just, oh she didn't really know exactly what she felt...maybe she just wanted to have the option of wandering off and dying somewhere without having someone around to drag her right back to "relative safety." As soon as she thought it, she felt ashamed of herself. Such a reckless and illogical action it was, not telling anyone where she was going.

In her not-much-of-a-defense, she had a rather unsettling dream and she just had to...

"I am well, as you can see."

Her bodyguard just raised an incredulous eyebrow, as if to say 'riiiiiiiight...'

She scowled at him. "I am!" Even without saying anything, he could be quite the smartarse, compoumded by her ability to understand him almost explicitly. It was a good thing he wasn't allowed to speak, she imagined he would have quite the mouth on him. "Stay if you want." She didn't want him to, of course but she wasn't going to throw a childish tantrum over it.

She leaned her head back against the World Tree's tree trunk again, hearing her tassel clink softly and closed her eyes.

A minute later she opened them again, but it was night.

"What...?" She hadn't been _that_ tired, had she? She certainly didn't think so...crawling on her hands and knees in an unconscious attempt to make herself a smaller target, she rounded the massive trunk of the World Tree to where Takeru stood...sleeping? She paused in the act of reaching out to touch him. As far as she knew, Takeru didn't sleep. But if he didn't sleep, what was he doing sleeping? Something was very wrong here...

Sen nudged his leg and with a sinking feeling in her chest, watched as the boy simply tipped over...and vanished into the ground.

Illusion.

Her breath caught. "N-no, no, Tak-Takeru, you can not leave me, you have to be here.." she squeezed her eyes shut, illogically trying to "wish" him into existence. "I am sorry for hurting you, I will not do it again..." Could he hear her? "I am sorry!" She was sorry, really, she was. He could-he could stop hiding now, she was sorry. She didn't want to die, she couldn't because...

She was so sorry.

She curled herself into a ball, hands clutching her knees up to her chest and head down, blinking back irrational tears. "Take-kun...please...you can not leave me..."

"Save your tears, Natsuko-hime." Sen's head jerked upward. Who-? "For death has yet to arrive."

* * *

Notes of dubious importance:

Tako: Octopus. Asuna has strange nicknames for people...

Ofuda: Purification Seal

Japan has outlawed anyone other than the military and police having guns. Special liscenses and permits are required for other weapons the last time I researched.

Author notes: Bah, another split chapter. Anyway, the viewpoint of Haruna was hard to write and I almost feel...a little dirty...The introductory arc is over, now it's time for some danger!


End file.
